Force Field Weakens: Lost in Space

The judges award a 9.2 for form and loft
The judges award a 9.2 for form and loft

I lowered my distraction shields for a while yesterday and got pulled into a black hole of pleasant wandering. So I have a list of to-blog clips now over in my google-document catch-all for this purpose. Oh, and a few more pictures from the snow, like the one of Mole-ester Dog above that has nothing whatsoever to do with the source of my distraction. Which is…

A friend told me about RedRoom, a place where writers can meet, share and gain visibility within their readership and with colleagues. So I spent more time than I should over there, and should you care to, you can go there and:

☼ read a couple of pieces that are selections from What We Hold In Our Hands: a Slow Road Reader

☼ listen to a couple of audio clips of pieces also in the new book, short essays that were on WVTF in days past, another new one coming up there next week–Monday, I think. I’ll add that one when it’s up on the station site, and link to it via RedRoom.

And in that same steeple-chase diversion I also 1) discovered that Slow Road Home is now apparently entirely readable via Google Book Search (via Table of Contents, perhaps other ways as well) and 2) the book is available in more libraries than I knew–only about 15, but including Harvard, Berea, Chapel Hill, and my alma mater, Auburn. If it were not self-published, it would be in many more, but there’s still unfortunately the stigma of second-class citizen without the imprimatur of approval by a “house” no matter how shabby its standards might be.

PS: the dog did lose fractional points because he still bears the blemish of discolored fur on his left hip from standing for too long too close to the wall heater two months ago. Picky judges!

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. YES, CHEF TSUGA FLIPS HIS MOLE INTO THE AIR, READY TO TOSS IT INTO THE PAN FOR SAUTEING WITH GARLIC AND BUTTER……….HMMMMM LIGHTLY FRIED MOLE, MAYBE WITH SOME FRENCH BREAD AND VEGGIES…………..
    AND, SORRY, I DON’T KNOW HOW TO PUT THAT LITTLE MARK OVER THE E IN SAUTEING…..

    HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, FRED, ANN, AND CHEF TSUGA….

    MARK